There’s an App for Trash, Too

As if “concierge style” door-to-door trash pickup and recycling wasn't fancy enough already…

Valet Waste (“Valet”)-headquartered in Tampa, Florida and founded in 1995-is the nation’s preeminent provider of value-added amenity services to the multi-family residential industry. Today, Valet Waste has a proven and efficient nationwide system, which services over 800,000 units nationwide. Valet’s core service is “concierge style” door-to-door trash pickup and recycling at large apartment complexes. “Service Valets” service trash and recycling from residents’ doorsteps and deliver contents to the community compactor or dumpster (see Exhibit 1). The Company also offers complementary maintenance services to the multi-family housing industry, including nightly maintenance, apartment cleaning, apartment turns and porter services through its Maintenance Plus offering, which launched in 2014.

Exhibit 1: Doorstep 1-2-3

trash-steps

This service, door-to-door trash pickup and recycling, is now one of the more requested apartment amenities by tenants, and one of the only amenity offerings utilized by 100% of residents (unlike a community gym or pool) [1]. Valet Waste benefits from highly attractive industry dynamics, with a significant proportion of the population choosing to rent because of luxury amenity offerings such as those Valet Waste offers. A study of U.S. Census Bureau data discovered much greater growth in renting versus buying among the nation’s wealthier population [2].

Valet Waste has a strong value proposition that resonates with residents and property managers alike. With Valet Waste’s five nights per week doorstep valet trash collection service, residents no longer need to take long walks, day or night, out to the dumpster or community compactor. Taking out the trash no longer requires trips up and down stairwells with trash bags slumped over shoulders. Residents simply place their bagged and tied waste into a Valet Waste provided container and leave it outside on their doorstep between 6:00pm and 8:00pm, Sunday through Thursday for pick-up [3]. Valet Waste’s goal is to enhance residents’ apartment living experience by providing unparalleled customer service, making apartment living clean and convenient.

In order to maintain its competitive advantage and deliver on its customer promise of providing its communities with unparalleled service and resident satisfaction, Valet Waste worked diligently to refine its operating model and improve performance by utilizing technology. The Company released the initial version of iValet in June 2013. iValet is Valet Waste’s real-time, proactive virtual workforce management app, critical to managing the service quality and efficiency of the Company’s distributed labor force. The app provides property managers the peace of mind that all on-site property activities are monitored in real-time at every door, every night (See Exhibit 2). iValet allows Service Valets to go above and beyond their ordinary course of business, photographing and reporting safety violations and other hazards discovered onsite such as malfunctioning or broken light fixtures. One of Valet Waste’s customers, Greystar Real Estate, praised the iValet technology:

“This program has allowed us to increase overall revenue, decrease trash removal expenses, and provide a more efficient and convenient way for our valued residents to take advantage of our green initiatives.”

Exhibit 2: iValet Dashboard

ivalet-dashboard

The iValet software not only benefits property managers but also the Valet Waste “District Managers” (“DMs”), who individually manage multiple properties. DMs schedule Service Valets via iValet’s Manager Portal, where schedules are pushed directly to the Service Valets’ mobile devices. During the collection process, the DMs have access to real-time data to proactively manage their properties, made available via the app’s geofencing technology (see Exhibit 3). iValet geofencing ensures all properties are serviced on schedule as well as alerts DMs of a no-call / no-show and facilitates securing a backup. This data access allows Valet Waste to increase the span of control of each DM (~15 properties), which in turn lowers overall costs for Valet Waste. Thanks to iValet, DMs can monitor and live-track [5]:

  • Exactly when service started and ended at the property
  • The route the Service Valet is using when servicing the property to ensure that he or she meets the time goal for completing the property
  • Completed and non-completed buildings
  • Custom points of interest on the property

Exhibit 3: iValet Geofencing Technology

geofencing

Valet Waste’s proprietary software drives efficiency, quality, accountability and profitability via a “Virtual Workforce Management.” iValet is a great example of how digital transformation has created opportunities to improve Valet Waste’s operating model and further accentuate the Company’s competitive differentiation.

(705 words)

Sources:

  1. Monica Lopeznieto. 2016. A New Trend in Waste Management: – Services Magazine | 2016. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.servicesmag.org/item/425-a-new-trend-in-waste-management. [Accessed 18 November 2016].
  1. Digital Trends. 2016. More Rich People Renting Than Buying Homes | Digital Trends. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/rich-people-rent-not-buy/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].
  1. Valet Waste. 2016. Valet Waste provides easy 3 step trash collection. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.valetwaste.com/property-management/doorstep-collection/doorstep-1-2-3/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].
  1. Valet Waste. iValet Software. 2016. Valet Waste: iValet Software. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.valetwaste.com/property-management/ivalet-software/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].

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Student comments on There’s an App for Trash, Too

  1. As a resident, I would love to have something like Valet Waste for my building. As you nicely outlined, Valet Waste definitely makes things more convenient for residents to recycle their trash and it also helps property managers better manage their trash collection resources. But I am concerned about how the company would react to a competitor entering this space. While the concept is interesting, I am not sure if the actual technology used is so revolutionary that it would be hard for competitors to copy. One could argue that there is some amount of first mover effect and being the first player in the field of “concierge style” trash collection has given Valet Waste a significant advantage. But if I were running the company, I would look to see how I can diversify and offer more value-added services such as maintenance and apartment cleaning (as you mentioned) or even some kind of security service, to protect myself from competition.

  2. This service seems slightly ridiculous, but at the same time I’m pretty sure that almost anyone would utilize this if they knew they wouldn’t have to take out the trash. Has the company considered installing a an IoT sensor that automatically senses the amount of trash in a resident’s bin so that it can time the pickups without having to interface with the resident? This would allow the iValet company the ability to better plan pickups and better predict the trash patterns of residents. The company would then be able to optimize the pickup schedule.

  3. Very interesting! I think technology is going to force all service companies to step up their game in terms of communication with customers. In your example, the app provides pictures and live tracking which gives customers more peace of mind and improves service accountability. We already see the important and expectation of this in other businesses like doggie day care where the service provider allows the customer a much higher level of oversight/monitoring than previously possible in the pre-smartphone era

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